At dawn, before Luna could get up, I rose quietly from beside her.
The room was still, just like the night before too still. The kind of silence that made instincts scream even when there was nothing to see.
I moved toward the door, senses sharpened, listening for any sign of movement beyond the walls. The curse stirred beneath my skin, reacting to the possibility of danger. A faint heat crawled through my veins, urging me to act, to hunt.
I paused,
Nothing,
No footsteps,
No distorted breathing,
No shadows lurking where they didn't belong.
For now, we were safe. I felt it.
I turned back to her.
Luna was curled on the thin mattress, brows furrowed as if trapped in a nightmare she couldn't escape. Strands of dark hair clung to her damp forehead. Even in sleep, she looked tense like someone who had forgotten what peace felt like.
Then she gasped.
Her eyes flew open as her hand snapped to her wrist.
"Ahhh" She sucked in a sharp breath, teeth clenched. "It hurts."
I was beside her in an instant.
"Let me see."
She hesitated, then slowly pulled her sleeve back.
The mark had changed.
The black symbol coiled around her wrist like a living thing, darker than before, its edges sharper, pulsing faintly with a rhythm that made my chest tighten. Heat radiated from it, unnatural, deliberate.
Awake.
My jaw clenched.
"It wasn't like this last night," she whispered, fear slipping into her voice.
"No," I said quietly. "It wasn't."
I'd seen this mark once before etched into forbidden pages, mentioned in hushed conversations among hunters who didn't live long afterward. A sign most people dismissed as myth.
A binding mark.
A summons.
Something ancient had reached out and chosen her.
I wrapped my fingers gently around her wrist, ignoring the way the curse inside me reacted violently the moment I touched her. Pain flared beneath my skin, sharp and warning but I didn't pull away.
"When did this appear?" I asked.
"Three nights ago," she said. "I woke up and it was just… there. I thought it was a bruise. Then they started coming."
Monsters.
Hunters.
Things that shouldn't exist.
My grip tightened slightly. "You were marked."
Her breath trembled. "For what?"
I didn't answer immediately.
Telling her the truth too soon could break her. But lying would be worse.
"This mark doesn't just attract them," I said slowly. "It calls to them. Every creature tied to the other side can feel it."
Her face drained of color. "So it's my fault."
"No." I met her eyes. "You didn't choose this."
"But it's killing people around me," she whispered. "Isn't it?"
Silence stretched between us.
"Yes," I admitted.
Her shoulders shook once, then stilled. She lowered her gaze, fingers curling into the mattress as if grounding herself.
"I don't want to be a monster," she said softly.
The words hit harder than any blade.
I crouched in front of her, forcing her to look at me. "You're not."
"You don't know that."
"I do." My voice came out firmer than I expected. "Monsters don't worry about becoming monsters."
She stared at me for a long moment, searching my face for doubt. Finding none.
"Then what happens now?" she asked.
I exhaled slowly. "Now, we figure out what triggered the mark. And we stop it before it fully awakens."
"And if it does?"
I hesitated.
"If it fully awakens," I said, "you become the center of something far worse than pursuit."
The air shifted.
The mark flared suddenly, heat surging beneath my palm. Luna cried out as the symbol burned brighter, shadows twisting along its edges.
I felt it too.
A pull.
A presence.
My curse reacted violently, raging like a chained beast recognizing a rival.
Outside, somewhere far too close, something answered.
A long, distorted howl cut through the morning air.
Luna's eyes widened. "That… that wasn't human."
"No," I said, already reaching for my blade.
The howl came again closer this time.
I met her gaze, resolve hardening in my chest.
"Get up," I said. "We're out of time."